Vitamin B-5 aka Pantothenic Acid use for acne

This is vitamin B5 and the best natural supplement for acne you can take. If you're serious about getting rid of acne, this is a vitamin you must take. Ever since the summer of 2000 people have been posting frequently on the acne message boards of the successes using this vitamin. I have read literally thousands of testimonials from people who said that pantothenic acid has worked miracles for them. Many people have been using prescription drugs for years that have failed to work and then tried B5 and had their acne significantly reduced. I've read many postings from people who've said it's worked better than Accutane. This natural therapy for acne is spreading like wildfire around the Internet, it's the thing most people are trying. From my estimation, it works for over 90% of people, which tops Accutane, which works for 70% to 80% of people. And Accutane is very expensive and can have many bad side effects, so much so that you must have regular blood tests to make sure your liver isn't being damaged. Pantothenic acid is safe even in the large doses needed for it to work against acne. Pantothenic acid is found in small amounts in most foods. The best sources are fish, beef, whole-wheat flour, royal jelly, eggs, liver, yeast, mushrooms, peanuts, cashews, broccoli, soybeans, avocodoes, and whole-grain cereals. But the amount of B5 in food is so small that even if you ate them all day you wouldn't get enough to help against acne. You need to take pantothenic acid supplements. From my research on vitamin information sites, there has never been any toxicities reported in using high amounts of vitamin B5. It's a water soluble vitamin, which means excess amounts are flushed out of the body (in urine).

Basically the cause of acne is a defect or deficiency in a person's metabolism of lipids (fats) which occurs due to a lack of coenzyme-A in the body. Coenzyme-A is made of ATP (energy), cysteine, and pantothenic acid. Of these 3, pantothenic acid is the only one which is a vitamin and must be supplied through the diet. The other 2 are produced by the body. So if you supplement with pantothenic acid you create more Coenzyme-A in your body and your fats get metabolized. A lack of Coenzyme-A in the body means that fats don't get broken down. Instead, they get deposited in your sebaceous (oil) glands and get secreted as sebum (oil). Oil is a fat in liquid form. You get acne because the acne bacteria (Propionibacterium acne) in your pores feeds on this excess oil. But if you had no oil or very little oil in your pores, you would have no acne or very little acne. Taking large doses of pantothenic acid shuts down your oil production, drying up your pores, and reducing your acne. Accutane also shuts down oil production, but does it by actually shrinking your oil glands. Pantothenic acid doesn't shrink your oil glands, but creates enough coenyme-A so that fats don't get deposited in your oil glands in the first place. This theory explains why acne starts around puberty. At puberty, most coenzyme-A gets used to make the sex hormones. Since formation of the sex hormones and reproductive organs of the body is the more important reaction, fat metabolism gets put on hold, oil production increases which causes acne to develop. But if you supplement with enough pantothenic acid, you will create enough coenzyme-A in the body and both sex hormone synthesis and fatty acid metabolism will be taken care of. This theory also explains why acne tends to subside after puberty when a person is in his/her 20s. When the sexual characteristics are fully developed, there is much more coenzyme-A available for lipid metabolism. The study also says that stress, a woman's cycle, and lack of sleep lower the levels of pantothenic acid available for lipid metabolism. The other major benefit from taking large amounts of vitamin B5 is that the pores on your skin actually shrink in size and become visibly smaller. The skin becomes very fine and smooth looking. Once pantothenic acid therapy has worked, a maintenance dose is usually needed to keep the acne away. This is a lower dose in the range of 1 to 5 grams a day.

I had very bad moderate acne on my face. I started off with a lower dose of 5 grams a day. After a few weeks it didn't help me, so I increased it to the recommended 10 grams a day. I took the vitamin in 4 divided doses of 2.5 grams, just as described in the study. After just a day or two, my acne started to quickly subside. And after a few weeks, my oil production really decreased. Normally I had really oily skin. My forehead was the oilest part of my face, as it would be oily in 1 or 2 hours after washing it. But on 10 grams of B5 a day, it took all day for my forehead to get oily and face would have hardly no oil on it by the day's end. And best of all my skin pores were getting smaller and smaller. This is an amazing thing to witness. You wouldn't think a simple vitamin could actually shrink your pores, but it works. My skin now appears very smooth and "tight". I kept taking 10 grams a day for 2 months as recommended for people with moderate acne. Then I lowered it to 5 grams a day for about a month. Now I take 3 to 3.5 grams a day. This lower amount works as a maintenance dose. Although my skin has a little more oil, the breakouts are still kept to a minimum. If I stop taking it altogether, the acne does come back. If I eat a lot of oily, fatty foods I get a little more acne, so I do have to watch my diet. The one side effect from taking large doses of pantothenic acid is gas and diarreha. To minimize this, take the vitamin with food as well as water. It's a good idea anyways to take most supplements with food, even the water soluble ones. When you eat food, the digestive enzymes and gastric juices in the stomach will help to break the supplement down better, so it can be absorbed in the water (in the case of B5).

You may have a hard time trying to find vitamin B5 in stores. It's not commonly sold as a separate supplement. You'll see a lot of B1, B2, B6, and B12. Don't look for B5 on the bottle. Usually it's sold under the name pantothenic acid. The vitamin is white and sold in capsule form, tablet form, and even as a powder you can mix into water or put on food. The GNC and Wal-Mart and most retail stores in my city don't sell pantothenic acid. The ingredient label on bottles of pantothenic acid will say d-calcium pantothenate or calcium pantothenate.

The most common amount in a B5 capsule or tablet is 500 mg. So to take 10 grams a day, that would be 20 of these capsules/tablets a day. Now that does seem like a lot, and I spread it out as 5 pills 4 times a day. It's best to spread out your amount no matter how much you take. This way your body gets a more continuous supply of pantothenic acid. If you want to take less pills, there are companies that sell B5 in 1,000 mg pills. I believe the brands Country Life, Kaz, and Nature's Plus do this. Another popular brand of B5 that people take is NOW. So you'll have to spend money for a few months to take these large doses of B5. But it's definitely worth it if it works. Compared to all the money you may have spent on prescription drugs that don't work, pantothenic acid is safe and has a very high success rate. If you can't find B5 in any stores buy bulk from Nutraplaned and cap them.

Many people usually start out with lower amounts of B5 hoping it will work so they don't have to take so many pills a day and spend as much. Some of these people report having an initial breakout before the acne starts to fade away. This is because they're not taking enough. Everyone's exact need for B5 is different. If you want to start at a lower amount I would recommend about 5 grams a day. If it doesn't work at first, don't give up, but gradually increase the amount you take, maybe by a gram a week. Keep increasing until you find the amount that works. Then stay on that amount for 2 months. If you have severe acne you may want to stay on that amount for 6 months. If it's going to work for you, and it likely will, 10 grams a day will probably be enough for most people. Then you can lower it to the range of 1 to 5 grams a day. The most important thing I can stress is that since you've never tried this before, you're going to need a lot of B5 in the beginning. Depending on how long you've had acne, your body may have a severe deficiency in pantothenic acid for lipid metabolism. If you don't get results with lower amounts of B5 don't stop. You may miss out on getting great results with higher amounts, like I did at 10 grams a day. Generally speaking, the more severe your acne is the more B5 you will need. Either way, you have to experiment to find the right amount for treatment and maintenance. Good luck!

this is actually the best write up on b5 that ive ever seen.thank you
ive had stubborn bacne for a while now,im gonna start using this tomorow to see if it clears it up.very interesting info on the causes of oil and acne as well.i didnt know that stuff about the body not being able to process fats properly hence causing the problem.

Okay this might sound stupid but your explination of acne isn't the same as the main one I've heard most often recently which is that acne is just the skin having an adverse effect from testosterone production. Or is that right and it's testosterone in part that effects coenzyme-A production?

Anyways, I've not used B-5 but heard about it a while back. I've been taking Isotrenin/Accutane for ~6 months and it has done a great job at clearing my face and neck but hasn't helped much with my chest/shoulders/back. I might give B-5 a try until I go back onto Isotrenin.

scarring needs to be cosmetically removed, like you said laser. I havent used B5 in about 3 months because i have been on neutrogena cleanser, toner, moisturizer, and some doctor prescribed antibiotic gel (clindamycin). So i have had a break from break outs. Once i stop getting the gel prescribed to me its off to my B5, I have a whole tub.

Okay this might sound stupid but your explination of acne isn't the same as the main one I've heard most often recently which is that acne is just the skin having an adverse effect from testosterone production. Or is that right and it's testosterone in part that effects coenzyme-A production?

Anyways, I've not used B-5 but heard about it a while back. I've been taking Isotrenin/Accutane for ~6 months and it has done a great job at clearing my face and neck but hasn't helped much with my chest/shoulders/back. I might give B-5 a try until I go back onto Isotrenin.

well i dont believe its the onlly way to get acne.i believe another main cause is plaque and cholesterol buildup causing problems.ill try to dig up the info i have,should be saved here somewhere,that talks about this and some other good tips.
anyways,back on point...as u mentioned,the test may play a part in aggravating already mentioned mechanism.via increased oil/sebum production.see what i mean?

i would not use accutane(i know its easier tosay when i dont have breakouts on my face)but seriously.try anything but that,stuff fries your liver and has some other serious sides,including irreperable possible effects to your vision

I don't think so, due to the mechanism of action. Read up about it, I'm not the most scientific person but I had the same question when I began researching B5 a couple years ago. My skin is about as oily as the soils of Iraq, and since I started using B5, I'd say I have had 90% fewer pimples. I'm an advocate of it.

lol as oily as the soils of Iraq. I was like dude its sand how your face must be mad dry, then i got it lol. I wouldnt think it would be topical either but i dont know for sure. I say just stick to ingesting it orally.

well i dont believe its the onlly way to get acne.i believe another main cause is plaque and cholesterol buildup causing problems.ill try to dig up the info i have,should be saved here somewhere,that talks about this and some other good tips.
anyways,back on point...as u mentioned,the test may play a part in aggravating already mentioned mechanism.via increased oil/sebum production.see what i mean?

i would not use accutane(i know its easier tosay when i dont have breakouts on my face)but seriously.try anything but that,stuff fries your liver and has some other serious sides,including irreperable possible effects to your vision

curious if the b5 would have any topical effect?

I get what you're saying and infact my vision has become further impared since I started taking it, I just wish there was a transdermal version of Isotrenin that is more site specific to maybe minimize sides.

I'm using 12 gr capped nutraplanet bulk B5 a day to combat mtrn delayed acne. My face got very oily in about 2 hours after washing, now it takes around 10 hours. The acne is slowly going away. Works for me no doubt.

lol as oily as the soils of Iraq. I was like dude its sand how your face must be mad dry, then i got it lol. I wouldnt think it would be topical either but i dont know for sure. I say just stick to ingesting it orally.

Yeah you know what I meant...if I stopped taking B5 I could probably rent my pores to Shell as a new source of oil!!!

Personally I've gotten used to the taste. I can barely take ALCAR powder straight, and I gave up years ago on yohimbe powder...IMHO if you can take yohimbe powder straight, with just a glass of water, you can tolerate anything!!!

Personally I've gotten used to the taste. I can barely take ALCAR powder straight, and I gave up years ago on yohimbe powder...IMHO if you can take yohimbe powder straight, with just a glass of water, you can tolerate anything!!!

Different for everybody then I can take ALCAR and CEE, it's dirty but I can take it, but B5 makes me gag :S